PERPETUAL MOTION 69 



were themselves deceived when they saw the engine start 

 off with tremendous velocity as soon as a little bisulphide 

 of carbon was injected into the boiler, and they failed to 

 see that this spurt, if I may use the expression, was simply 

 due to a draft upon capital previously stored up. The 

 capacity of bisulphide of carbon for heat is quite low, when 

 compared with that of water ; its vaporizing point is also 

 much lower and consequently, an ordinary boiler full of 

 hot water contains enough heat to vaporize a considerable 

 quantity of bisulphide of carbon at a pretty high pressure. 

 In even a still greater measure the same is true of liquid 

 air, and this was the underlying fallacy in the case of the 

 tests made with liquid-air motors. 



3. FRAUDS 



But while the inventors of these schemes may have been 

 honest, there is another class who deliberately set out to 

 perpetrate a fraud. Their machines work, and work well, 

 but there is always some concealed source of power, which 

 causes them to move. As a general rule, such inventors 

 form a company or corporation of unlimited " lie-ability," as 

 De Morgan phrases it, and then they proceed by means of 

 flaring prospectuses and liberal advertising, to gather in 

 the dupes who are attracted by their seductive promises 

 of enormous returns for a very small outlay. Perhaps the 

 most widely known of these fraudulent schemes of recent 

 years was the notorious Keeley motor, the originator of 

 which managed to hoodwink a respectable old lady, and to 

 draw from her enormous supplies of cash. At his death, 

 however, the absolutely fraudulent nature of his contri- 

 vances was fully disclosed, and nothing more has been 



